John Malone wrangles runaway US cable mess

Liberty Broadband

24/09/2024 18:15

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist.  The opinions
expressed are his own.)
    By Jonathan Guilford
       NEW YORK, Sept 24 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The media
mogul’s wheeling and dealing has left Liberty Broadband trading
at a big discount to its assets. A mooted $14 bln share swap
with internet provider Charter should unwind the fiendish
complexity. Even better for him, the strategic quandary will be
someone else’s problem.

    Full view will be published shortly.
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    CONTEXT NEWS
    Holding company Liberty Broadband said on Sept. 23 that it
had received a merger proposal from cable operator Charter
Communications, and that it had sent a counterbid with terms for
an all-stock transaction.
    Liberty Broadband owns a 26% stake in Charter, a 16.5% stake
in media data analysis company Comscore, and all of Alaska-based
cable provider GCI.
    Under the terms of Liberty Broadband’s offer, its
stockholders would receive 0.29 shares of Charter for each of
their shares.

 (Editing by Jeffrey Goldfarb and Pranav Kiran)
 ((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can
click on  GUILFORD/  
Jonathan.Guilford@thomsonreuters.com))